Back to the Future (Time Zonally Speaking)

I'm very happy to say that travel as relatively uneventful. My flight was delayed by over an hour and I was in danger of missing my connection from Newark to Lisbon. So, as a precaution, they reserved me seats on a flight to Paris and then to Lisbon. So, if I missed my connecting flight, I'd still get to Lisbon on time. Although I did need to run from gate to gate, I made it in time and there were no problems.

The flight itself was also uneventful. On this plane they had really cool individual touch screens for everyone. You could select at will any of 40 movies, 100 or so tv episodes, or 150 cd's. Sadly, I never got the cd's to work, depriving me of falling asleep to Coltrane's "A Love Supreme." Really, the big problem was that there was so much to watch, so little time (the flight was only 6 hours and change), and I really needed to spend most of those hourse sleeping to cash in on my pre-jetlag experiment.

As far as that goes, I did take a 45 min nap when I got to my hotel this morning, but other than that, I've been able (more or less) to stave off sleep. I'm cautiously optimistic that I'll be able to sleep much of the night tonight. It's kinda of funny that in the afternoon, I had to fight not to fall asleep, but now I'm worried about being able to get to sleep. Ugh, I forgot to mention the hour line getting through customs. Fortunately I had my own mix of michael Jackson's greatest hits to occupy me. Coincidentally, there was a PYT 2 people in front of me that I had to visually occupy me (if you don't know what that means, go listen to one of my new favorite Michael songs of the same name).

Portuguese time

Well, I'm headed back on the ship. In order to avoid the jetlag that caused me to be up for over 36 hours in a row last time, I've attempted to slowly shift my sleeping schedule back. The past two mornings I've woken up at around 4 am (9am Portugal time). The hope was that tonight I'd be sleepy around 9 and go to sleep. In reality, I had a lovely conversation with Breighan and then another short one with Amy, keeping me up til 11 (4 am Portugal time). So, the alarm is set for 3:30am. If I can successfully stay awake until I get on my 8pm flight from Newark to Lisbon, I will hopefully fall asleep on the plane, and wake up when the flight lands at 8am local time. Then, I play in Portugal for a day, go to sleep, and wake up! I'll let ya know.

I'm going to try and post as much as i can while I'm on the ship. There will obviously be a lot fewer new things than last time to talk about, but I'm sure something fun will happen. I'm really excited to hang out with Michelle in Barcelona next Thursday and hopefully Kim G in Florence.

pictures revised

So, the blog isn't really meant to handle so many pictures. Instead, i've begun to upload to webshots. Enjoy!

http://community.webshots.com/user/snoopmt1

Pictures

So, I'm back safe in Cincinnati where the internet is free and plentiful. I'm going to start posting pictures. There are way too many to really do captions for everything. Since I've been to some ports multiple times, some groups of pictures represent different days in the same place. Enjoy and ask any questions you may have!

last night on ship

I had some things to blog about before I left. I visited Malaga for a third time and bought some really cool gifts for my sister. I overpayed for a simple lunch at a bar. Etc. But, 5 beers into my going away party of sorts with the band, I don't much have the patience for that. The crew bar was a big love fest tonight. Hugs and kisses all around. In addition to my parents, I now have multiple other places to stay in NY if I ever need. The funny thing about drinking is that you mean every word you say, but it's not necessarily what you would have said if you were sober.

Because I had shows tonight after my luggage had to be checked, I'll be carrying my black shoes around all tomorrow.

I've already been asked back to this ship over the summer. The band master is due for a vacation again and I'm the obvious choice for a replacement. I'm not sure yet if I'll come back to ships. The saying I've used most often on the ship (but not my favorite saying...Fav) is that some days you feel like you're stealing money and other days you feel like you earn every penny. On this ship, I had the pleasure of working with some of the best musicians and singers I have ever worked with. I also had to work with some of the most undertalented, over-obnoxious people I have ever had to deal with.

Overall, my cruise ship experience has been successful. It's been about 50% the paid vacation that my family and friends seemed to assume it would be, and 50% the hard work I was pretty sure it would be. The bottom line is that I've now visited Rome, Athens, Cairo, Canary Islands, Madeira, Malta, Casablanca, Barcelona, and Malaga while being paid and working with highly talented people. Oh, and drinking $1 beer nightly.

Stay tuned to my blog because when I get home and the internet is fast and free, I'll be posting all my pictures. Including me on a camel at the pyramids.

For those in Cincinnati, I'd like to get anyone interested together at Hofbrauhaus (in honor of all the beerfest sets I've played on board) this coming weekend (not sure Friday or Saturday yet).

Thank you so much for reading my blog and for some of you, posting responses. I look forward to real water, real air, and the two Lost episodes I have yet to see.

cagney's

With my stay on the ship winding down, I'm taking the opportunity to do some goodbye things. Tonight I took a picture with my band, for example. I'll post it when I get home. Another thing I have yet to do is visit the steakhouse on board. Although there are some free places to eat for the passengers, most of the theme restaurants have cover charges. Our steak house has a $20 cover. The nice thing about cover charge is that once you're in, you can order (almost) anything off the menu all for the same price. 3 appetizers, 2 sides, a second entree, 2 desserts, all for the same cover.

Here was my $20 meal tonight: Ahi tuna caprezzi, caesar salad (the best I've ever had, with a little tobasco), rib eye steak, mashed potatos, onion rings, and for dessert, cheesecake and apple crisp with vanilla ice cream. Oh, and some tea afterwards. Even at TGI Fridays, that's not a $20 meal.

The only thing that ruined it only slightly was that I had to leave dinner in order to play a solo set in the atrium. I decided to do a set of Broadway favorites. I was sad my grandma wasn't there because I played one of her favorite songs, The Best of Times is Now. I don't mind playing, but it was sad to leave a wonderful meal to work. Oh well.

Today is Wednesday. Thursday, Friday, Saturday...fly on Sunday!

Since this has been a food post, I should follow up on an earlier post. After wondering about losing weight, I have sadly gained weight while I've been on the ship. I have been pretty lazy about working out and I certainly eat my share. Also, there's a soft serve ice cream machine in the staff mess. What's a guy to do?

5 more days

I come home in 5 days. I realized this morning that my flight gets into Atlanta at 4pm and doesn't leave for CVG until 9:30. That's no fun. Fortunately, I'm flying with two of my favorite people from the ship and they're currently trying to get us seats together. They're a lounge act. She's from Australia and he's from Texas. Great great people.

I started packing tonight which was very exciting! I can't wait to get back.